Put a dog in a small cage and keep poking him with a stick

One of our partners and another prisoner took two guards hostage and stabbed them. Then the two prisoners were severely beaten. Lots of guards resigned because of violence. Because of the excessive violence recently, the warden was removed.

I asked Roy why the hostage taking happened. He gave two reasons:

Holidays are volatile. The hostage taking took place the day after Thanksgiving.

Look at it this way: If you put a dog in a small cage and keep poking him with a stick, the dog will eventually become vicious.

A schizo inmate next to Roy screams 2 hours a day and the rest of the time pounds on the wall. Roy is practicing patience, not reacting with anger, just being patient. Roy’s comment: “Needless to say my practice never gets boring.”

Roy won’t go to classification because he cannot work and will never go home so the classification is meaningless to him. Moreover he would have to walk 100 yards to get to the classification hearing, which would be painful. Refusing to go to classification made the warden angry so the warden gave Roy a solid door as punishment. Roy loves the solid door because it cuts down on the noise, but it also means that Roy can only interact with the porters, not other prisoners.

Meditation is easiest when it is quiet. The two quiet times are early in the morning after breakfast (breakfast is 2 to 4 am) and two mornings a week when prisoners take a shower.

The pain in his hands and feet is killing him. No medicine for pain. Just prostrate medicine. Anger no longer erupts over his pain, lack of treatment, or other reasons.

Roy told me John, on the floor above, is pretty much deaf so Roy cannot talk to him.